McNeese Credit Card Procedures to Change

McNeese Credit Card Procedures to Change

McNeese State University is making a change in student tuition and fee payment procedures effective April 5. After this date, no credit card payments for student tuition and fees will be accepted by the cashier's office in Smith Hall or by telephone. All credit card payments must be made through a secure online process using the student's password protected portal account. Students will now have the option to set up authorized users to make payments on their behalf without sharing academic information.All credit card transactions for student payments will be assessed a convenience processing fee of 2.75 percent by Nelnet, the payment vendor."It is necessary to make this change for several reasons," Eddie Meche, McNeese vice president for business affairs, said. "We are in the final stages of upgrading the software used by the university for registration and business processes. The new system will no longer accept online credit card payments." Nelnet is a third party gateway that offers a secure method to process online credit card payments, Meche said. "McNeese has not charged a processing fee for paying student accounts with credit or debit cards and the university cannot cover the processing fees for student credit and debit card charges," he said.In making the change, McNeese will no longer accept credit or debit cards with the VISA logo for online payments of student tuition, fees and bookstore PTA accounts. McNeese will continue to accept MasterCard and Discover credit cards and debit cards with the MasterCard logo.Students can continue to pay tuition and fees on campus in Smith Hall by cash, check or money order. Nelnet also offers an online electronic check option for students and parents at no charge. "There is an option parents can use to pay tuition and fees by e-check without having access to all of the student's portal information," Michael Graham, McNeese chief information technology officer, said."We reviewed several third party vendors, including those used by other universities in the University of Louisiana System," Graham said. "Nelnet was selected because of its security features and it offers real-time posting of payment transactions to the McNeese software system."Graham said the software upgrade and fee payment change are being implemented on April 5 to coincide with tuition and fee payments for summer classes. "We try to launch major new system changes during summer operations because it impacts the fewest number of students. We have an opportunity to test all of the processes under real-time stress and work out any bugs before the fall semester begins."This change only affects payments for student tuition and fees and does not impact purchases made in the McNeese Bookstore or Connection or the athletics department.